World Duty Free Group discusses successful recognition schemes

Employee Benefits Live 2015: Involving employees in a recognition scheme will help ensure that the programme is a success in bringing the intended results, says Karen Waterman from World Duty Free Group (WDFG).

Addressing delegates at Employee Benefits Live 2015 in Olympia London, Waterman, UK reward and HR system manager at WDFG, explained the challenges involved in recognising and incentivising a diverse workforce. 

Employee surveys revealed that awareness of recognition schemes was low, and so the organisation began a review of its schemes.  

In July 2014, WDFG began work on improving both its employee suggestion scheme and its service recognition scheme. In order to gather staff feedback, the organisation created benefits champions in multiple locations to work alongside other key stakeholders.

Staff feedback gained through the benefits champions found that recognition was not timely, not consistent, and it did not recognise everyone.

As a result, WDFG made changes to its suggestion scheme; it removed its online system and went back to using paper-based ballot boxes with additional thank-you cards to ensure that staff received instant recognition. 

The scheme has seen a 20% increase in the number of ideas submitted, and WDFG has saved £18,000 by going back to an offline scheme.

The service recognition scheme was changed to ensure that more people were recognised each quarter; the old scheme rewarded one regional winner, but the new scheme recognises 12 to 16 winners.

Waterman said: “We have found that people enjoy the recognition; it’s not about money, it’s about timeliness, consistency and fairness.”